Italian Occupation
On 10 May 1936, in Ethiopia Italian troops from the northern front and from the southern front linked up at Dire Dawa. In Dire Dawa, the Italians found the recently released Ethiopian Ras, Hailu Tekle Haymanot, who boarded a train back to Addis Ababa and approached the Italian invaders in submission.
Elsewhere, loyal Ras Imru Haile Selassie fell back to Gore in southern Ethiopia to reorganize and continue to resist the Italians. Graziani was recalled in November and was replaced by the civilian Duke of Aosta. Tigray was made part of Eritrea and Ogaden part of Somalia.
Britain and France recognized Italy’s sovereignty over Ethiopia by treaty in April 1938 (during the occupation the Italians built 4,000 kilometers of roads in Ethiopia; Italy’s occupation army of 150,000 was spread thin in vast Ethiopia, and by 1941 they had 250,000 soldiers there including 75,000 civilians). The former police chief of Addis Ababa, Abebe Aregai, was the most successful leader of the Ethiopian guerrilla movement after 1937, using units of fifty men.
Read more about this topic: Second Italo-Ethiopian War
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